"Epicure Craig Claiborne dead at 79," read the Associated Press
headline. Reading those words on January 23, 2000, made my blood run cold. I felt
as
though I had lost an old friend.
Unfortunately, I've never had the pleasure of Mr.
Claiborne's company,
so why did I feel such a tremendous sense of personal loss? Was it
because he was from Mississippi, where I spent a large part of my life?
No, although that
was certainly a factor in establishing rapport between
us. His was always one of the
names I mentioned during the times I felt
it necessary to defend Mississippi when it was
under attack by those so grossly misinformed as to think that Mississippians are
basically back-
ward, uneducated and lacking in both culture and mental acumen. Was
it because we
shared the same philosophy about food? Indeed it was.
And with good reason. When I was
becoming serious about cooking,
he was my primary mentor and played a large part in
expanding my
knowledge of global
cuisine - mine as well as the rest of the country's.

We lost more than a "food writer" when Mr. Claiborne left this earth.
We
lost an extraordinarily talented, influential individual, a revolutionary
giant in the
culinary world. For those of you who may be unfamiliar
with
Mr. Claiborne and his work
(although that is unimaginable to me,
assuming you to be a lover of fine food), perhaps I
should elucidate...
In addition to being a prolific author, he was the first male editor of
the
food section of the New York Times and remained on the Times staff
until his
retirement in 1988. His journalistic acumen was backed up by
a solid formal food education
in Lausanne, Switzerland. Not only did
Mr. Claiborne write well, he knew whereof he wrote,
which, sadly, is
not always the case.

Part of the astonishing legacy left us by Craig
Claiborne is
The
New York Times Cookbook, published in 1961 by
Harper & Row*,
now a classic. When I learned of Mr. Claiborne's death, I immediately
began to gather
up his cookbooks, more out of respect for him than for
my own pleasure -
although his books always bring me that. During the
process of browsing through some of my
favorite, well-worn cookbooks,
I was astounded to realize how very far ahead of his time
Mr. Claiborne
actually was. I
would venture to say that very few "average"
American
cooks were
familiar with such things as Cacciucco in 1961. And it isn't
exactly a
household word today! (And yes, I had to look it up myself:
Italian seafood stew.)
Or how about Riz à l'Impératrice?
Cabbage, sure. But Cabbage à la Bretonne? Sauerkraut?
By all means.
But Choucroute à l'Alsacienne is a far cry from ordinary sauerkraut!
Mr.
Claiborne, like Julia Child, took us to places most of us never
dreamed of, broadened
our
culinary horizons, if you will. Epicure
indeed he was. He will be
sorely missed. (MG)

*The latest edition
(1990) of Craig Claiborne's renowned
New York Times Cookbook, published by HarperCollins:

Cut corn kernels from the cob using sharp knife. Scrape cobs to
obtain
pulp. there should be about 8 cups. Heat 1 tablespoon butter and the oil
in a
skillet and add the onions and bell peppers. Cook, stirring, until
wilted. Add the corn,
ground pepper, cayenne and thyme. Cook about
10 minutes or until corn starts to stick to
the bottom. Add tomatoes,
salt to taste, cream and sugar - stir. Cover and cook, stirring
often,
about 10 minutes. Stir in remaining 3 tablespoons butter and serve
hot. Serves 10.